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Latin America & the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean, our programs strengthen economic development by training individuals in underserved communities with marketable job skills, providing small businesses and micro-enterprises with greater market access, and working with city governments to implement green technologies. In Haiti, these efforts are combined with restoring communities and creating sustainable, economic growth.

The Clinton Foundation continues to respond to critical needs in Haiti by focusing its efforts on Haiti’s long-term development and strategic planning and by encouraging foreign and private sector investments and job creation.

When Valentine Abe first arrived in Haiti from Ivory Coast 15 years ago, he was shocked to see that a country so plentiful with water offered so little income to fisherman. He sought to establish a hatchery that could provide livelihoods to farmers throughout the country.

The Clinton Foundation is working to grow Haiti's coffee sector by bringing Haitian coffee to new markets and has facilitated new purchase agreements between Haitian coffee companies, cooperatives and international buyers.

The coffee sector in Haiti is a vital component of agricultural development and economic growth. The Clinton Foundation is engaging strategic partners including La Colombe and the Smallholder Farmers Alliance to revitalize Haiti’s coffee sector.

President Clinton visits the Caracol industrial park in Haiti on January 15, 2011. The development of the Caracol Park has been a collaboration between the Clinton Foundation, Haitian government, Inter-American Development Bank and the U.S. State Department.

As part of the Clinton Foundation's commitment to job creation in Haiti, the Foundation facilitated the signing of a development and operating agreement between Marriott and Digicel to build a 175-room Marriott branded hotel in the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince.

President Clinton talks with students at the Bon Berger De Doman School in Haiti during his visit in March 2011. The Bon Berger De Doman School is one of multiple schools in the Boucan-Carre regions of Haiti that is operating on solar energy.

Clinton Foundation in Haiti

Latin America spans the continent of South America, Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean, with Brazil being the largest and most populous country in Latin America, occupying almost half of South America’s landmass. The region is on fairly strong economic footing, and sound policies over the past decade have lifted more than 73 million people out of poverty and brought over 50 million into middle class. Still, problems persist: sluggish external demand and an overdependence on raw materials have impeded more inclusive growth, and the region remains very unequal, with some 82 million people living on less than $2.50 per day. Geographically, Latin America experiences the second highest incidence of flooding, landslides, earthquakes, and droughts in the world. It is also the most urbanized region in the world; about 80% percent of its people, most of them young, live in cities.

The Clinton Foundation currently operates programs across Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Haiti. Our goal is to help each country build a safer, more prosperous future, and we do that by catalyzing market opportunities for people in underserved communities; by strengthening disaster response; and by reforesting land and working with cities to reduce their carbon emissions. In Peru and Colombia, for example, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Enterprise Partnership) provides job training to poor and vulnerable populations by connecting these workers and entrepreneurs to local markets, so they can increase their incomes. In Haiti, the Clinton Foundation has been active in economic development programs since 2009, and led recovery efforts following the 2010 earthquake. The Clinton Foundation has committed more than $30 million to support relief efforts and long-term development.Our work in Haiti is also helping communities reforest land, which has been abated by extreme weather, and install solar panels on hospitals and in communities. From 2007-2012, the Clinton Climate Initiative and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group empowered cities in Latin America to invest in green technologies and fight climate change— including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo’s deployment of low-carbon transportation, Bogotá, Colombia’s retrofitting of traffic lights, and Mexico City’s improvement of waste management systems. In 2012, the C40 became a separate entity that continues to empower cities around the world.